Report: T.J. Hockenson has not had his knee surgery yet

Who knows how long he’ll be out?

Fans of the Minnesota Vikings got a significant hit of bad news on Friday afternoon concerning one of their top offensive players.

Per Darren Wolfson of KSTP in the Twin Cities, tight end T.J. Hockenson has not yet had surgery to repair the torn ACL and MCL in his knee because the swelling has not yet gone down enough for the surgery to be performed. This could, potentially, have a significant impact on his status for the start of the 2024 season.

Hockenson was injured in the Week 16 contest at U.S. Bank Stadium between the Vikings and the Detroit Lions thanks to a low hit from dirty, gutless pig Kerby Joseph. Joseph also lined up Justin Jefferson for a helmet-to-helmet hit later in that same game and injured Los Angeles Rams’ tight end Tyler Higbee in a similar manner to the Hockenson injury on Wild Card Weekend. The NFL is, apparently, cool with those things and even celebrated the injuries on social media a few days ago.

Needless to say, it will be a significant hit to the Minnesota offense if Hockenson isn’t ready to go at the start of the season. At this point, it appears that he’ll almost certainly start Training Camp on the Physically Unable to Perform List, and if he finishes camp on that same list he will have to miss at least the first four games of the regular season.

Here’s hoping that Hockenson will be able to have his surgery handled here soon so that he can get on the road to rehabbing an injury that never should have happened.